Democratic Pollster: 'The Less We're Talking About Obamacare the Better'

Even as President Barack Obama did his best Tuesday to take an Obamacare victory lap, a “prominent Democratic pollster” told Politico that the White House’s inflated seven million enrollment figure talking point does little to change Democrats’ dire electoral outlook.

“It is helpful, but it’s not going to fundamentally change the playing field. The less we’re talking about Obamacare, the better off we are,” the top Democratic pollster told Politico.

Those comments echo other privately expressed Democratic worries. One Democratic member of Congress told the New York Times that Obama has now become “poisonous” to Democrats running in the midterm Nov. 4 elections.

Liberals’ favorite pollster, Nate Silver, sparked an uproar from angry Democrats recently when he reported that his statistical analyses now predict a 60% chance Republicans will take back the Senate. And as progressive Washington Post writer Chris Cillizza notes, some election models are now predicting that the GOP has a better than 80% chance of winning the Senate.

Another progressive strategist told the National Journal that an internecine battle is already brewing among Democrats over the looming midterm losses.

“This is a coming divide for the Democratic Party. Not only about explaining 2014, but laying the groundwork for 2016,” said the strategist.

The source of much Democratic angst remains the President’s deeply unpopular Obamacare program. The latest Associated Press poll finds that Obamacare is now at an all-time low approval rating of just 26%.

Voters head to the polls in 217 days.